The invention disclosed herein relates generally to automated mail sorting and more particularly, a method of processing return to sender mailpieces using an automated mail sorting apparatus.
The processing and handling of mailpieces consumes an enormous amount of human and financial resources, particularly if the processing of the mailpieces is done manually. The processing and handling of mailpieces not only takes place at the Postal Service, but also occurs at each and every business or other site where communication via the mail delivery system is utilized. That is, various pieces of mail generated by a plurality of departments and individuals within a company need to be addressed, collected, sorted and franked as part of the outgoing mail process. Additionally, incoming mail needs to be collected and sorted efficiently to ensure that it gets to the addressee (i.e. employee or department) in a minimal amount of time. Since much of the documentation and information being conveyed through the mail system is critical in nature relative to the success of a business, it is imperative that the processing and handling of both the incoming and outgoing mailpieces be done efficiently and reliably so as not to negatively impact the functioning of the business.
Various automated mail handling machines have been developed for processing incoming mail (removing individual pieces of mail from a stack and performing subsequent actions on each individual piece of mail). Generally, the mail handling machines separate individual mailpieces from a stack, read the mailpieces using an optical character recognition (OCR) system and compare the read information to an addressee database in order to determine the appropriate destination points for delivery of the mailpieces. Some of the incoming mail received at a mailroom of the company can be unreadable by the OCR system, the quantity of which can be great since recipients cannot control the addressee format in which the incoming mail is received. Some of the unreadable mail could be, for example, mail which is not OCR readable xe2x80x9cOCR rejectsxe2x80x9d (i.e. smeared or needs to be opened to determine addressee), xe2x80x9cmystery mailxe2x80x9d which mail with no particular addressee (i.e. mail addressed to a company or department only or mail with poor quality handwriting), or xe2x80x9cresearch mailxe2x80x9d (i.e. mail that can not be read by OCR but does not require opening for the operator to determine the addressee, including the situation where there are several potential addressees with the same name). The unreadable mail, which will be referred to generally as xe2x80x9creject mailxe2x80x9d is expensive to process since it drains the resources of the mail room requiring additional time and labor for sorting and delivery.
Another type of mail which can be categorized as unreadable generally by incoming mail sorting apparatus is xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d (RTS) since the addressee, in most cases, is not in the addressee database of the mail sorting apparatus. These mailpieces, absent additional processing, are typically delivered to the xe2x80x9cOCR rejectxe2x80x9d bin and are handled manually which is labor intensive and expensive.
Typical xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mail is marked with xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d text and/or a graphics symbol. The graphics symbols applied to xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mail are not uniform or standard and are not applied to a standard location on xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpieces. For these reasons, there are challenges to recognizing the xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d symbol on a mailpiece by using an OCR system. Thus, a typical OCR system configured to recognized text would need additional capabilities and additional xe2x80x9cread regionsxe2x80x9d to recognize xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d icon or markings. This additional capability can be expensive and difficult to implement because of the lack of standardization.
Previously, if a determination could not be made by the incoming mail handling machine as to the addressee, a video image of the mailpiece was viewed by an operator and in the case where the addressee image was readable by the operator, addressee information was keyed into the system and associated with an identification number for the mailpiece. This is typically done after the unreadable mailpieces are sorted into a reject bin because it requires time to make the determination and provide the information to the system for proper sorting. The previously rejected mailpieces are then resorted by reading the identification information which can be printed on the mail during the first sort. The identification information is linked with the addressee information manually keyed in by the operator during the reject processing/video coding sequence and is used to sort the mailpiece to the proper destination bin.
Video processing of mailpieces has been performed at on-site video coding terminals or off-site video coding facilities where the video image is transmitted for determination of addressee by an operator. The information is then transferred back to the sorting apparatus. The software and hardware costs associated with video processing can be high because video coding requires additional computer systems, image servers and workstations. Additionally, licensing fees for video coding software can be expensive. Video coding can also be labor intensive because the operator has to input information using a keyboard. While predictive keying can be used, the operator is still bogged down with using his or her hands to input addressee information. With video coding, a separate video coding operator is needed in apart from the incoming mailpiece sorting apparatus operator in order to keep throughput on the sorting apparatus while processing rejects.
It would be helpful if the mailpieces for which an intended recipient has not been identified could be processed additionally, quickly and in an automated fashion so as to encumber fewer additional resources. One of the problems of the prior art is that a system is not available for providing additional automated identification of addressees or destinations. Another problem of the prior art is that a system is not available which provides higher throughput and decreased labor costs. Another problem of the prior art is that is can be expensive. Yet another problem of the prior art is that incoming mail handling machines do not include additional functionality for automatically determining the intended recipient when the mailpiece is a xe2x80x9creturned to senderxe2x80x9d mailpiece. Therefore, a method of processing xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpieces is needed which integrates xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d processing with the incoming mailpiece sorting apparatus with increased read rates and with greater throughput.
This invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a method of processing reject mailpieces and xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpieces with better throughput and lower labor costs. This in turn affords quicker mailpiece processing. The present invention is directed, in general to automated incoming mailpiece sorting apparatus and more particularly, a method of processing xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpieces using an automated incoming mailpiece sorting apparatus with an addressee database and state/ZIP Code list to identify xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpieces.
The mailpiece sorting apparatus may generally comprise a feeder, a scanner, a mailpiece deliverer, compartments or bins for receiving sorted mailpieces, optical character recognition system (OCR) for reading addressee information, a personal computer (PC) or microprocessor based system, recipient matching software and an addressee database. The mailpiece sorting apparatus of the present invention also comprises software that identifies addressee information and assigns a confidence level to such identification. The xe2x80x9clevel of confidencexe2x80x9d assists to provide a greater percentage of mailpieces correctly identified as xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpieces and deliver such mailpieces to a xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d bin.
The basic principle for outsorting xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mail is that if an incoming mailpiece arrives from a post, such as the USPS, with a ZIP Code or state that is not contained in a predefined state/ZIP Code list created from the addressee database, then the mailpiece is considered to be xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mail. The state/ZIP Code list is created from the states and ZIP Code entries in the addressee database of the automated incoming mailpiece sorting apparatus. It is assumed that normal incoming post office mail will be addressed to cities, states, and ZIP Codes in the Recipient table and that xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mail will not. The method will not outsort xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mail whose original ZIP Code (or in some cases state) is in the state/ZIP Code list. Such mailpieces will be sent to the OCR reject bin.
This method of the present invention does not outsort xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpieces whose original city, state, ZIP Code address line has been completely obscured by xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d graphics, labels, or strikeouts applied by the post office (see below). Such mailpieces are sent to the OCR reject bin. However, if either the state or ZIP Code of the original address is readable and assigned a high xe2x80x9clevel of confidencexe2x80x9d, the mailpiece can be outsorted as a xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpiece.
In an embodiment of the present invention, mailpieces are sorted by the mailpiece sorting apparatus during a first-pass sort (i.e. on first pass mailpieces are divided into available bins, on next pass, mailpieces from one bin of the first pass are resorted into available bins). Mailpieces that can be read and addressees identified using the OCR system or the post OCR processing application are sent to their designated sort bins. Mailpieces that the mailpiece sorting apparatus OCR system cannot determine the recipient for are (xe2x80x9crejectsxe2x80x9d) and/or xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d (RTS) mailpieces. These mailpieces, as the case may be, are sent to a reject bin or a xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d bin. Once the first pass sorting is completed, the rejects may be processed using a reject sorting mode such as video coding, manual identification or voice recognition system or other system determined by one of ordinary skill in the art using factors such as cost and throughput.
An advantage of the method of the present invention is that it provides higher throughput with minimal additional hardware, software and labor costs. Another advantage of the present invention is that it allows for additional automated processing. Other advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification. The aforementioned advantages are illustrative of the advantages of the various embodiments of the present invention.